They have had nearly six weeks of intensive flight and ground training and endured hot and sometimes rainy weather. They attended daily groundschool classes and waited out aircraft maintenance delays, but now training is coming to a close and four of the five Able Flight student pilots at Purdue have already passed checkrides to become newly licensed pilots.

When the final day of training ends, Dennis Akins, Warren Cleary, Deirdre Dacey, Lt. Andrew Kinard and Young Choi will have logged well over 200 hours in the air with the help of their instructors Tim Gleeson, Jared Kuhn, Nick Losande, Abe McCollough and Matt Paczolt. In addition, each student received more than 30 hours of ground instruction from their instructors along with their formal ground school class with Professior Bernie Wulle.

A special thanks to Able Flight pilot (Class of 2012) and current Purdue graduate student Wesley Major for serving as Able Flight's volunteer program coordinator for 2013.

Celebrate with our new pilots as they receive their Able Flight Wings on Tuesday July 30th

at 11AM in Phillips 66 Plaza at EAA AirVenture.

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Able Flight pilot Heather Schultz

WE ARE LOOKING FOR 150 GOOD PEOPLE!

If only 150 people donate just $5 a month, we can provide a full scholarship each year to someone like Able Flight pilot Heather Schultz.

For about the cost of a cup of coffee from a famous store, you and only 149 other people can make it possible for someone with a disability to become a pilot. And that's a powerful thing to do with just a few dollars!

It's easy to set up your $5 recurring donation here. Just enter $5 as your amount and click on the box below to make it a monthly donation.